Maybe Ripley from Alien. Yes the xenomorph is still iconic but it's not a "character".

Tremors, in which Burt Gummer became the main star. I still haven't even seen part 7!!

I almost said Reggie, but the Tall Man is still more iconic than he is.

That's a real quandary, about who is the Phantasm icon. Reggie gets a lot of love from fans, I think. I would like to award the honor to Reggie, just because he is awesome and because once he answered my e-mail to him when I asked him some question. But, yeah, the Tall Man is really more iconic... he is just the figure that leaps to mind when thinking of the franchise.

The way I asked the question probably makes us all automatically think of the older classic horror franchises. But, the Patrick Wilson characters in the Insidious and Conjuring franchises might be the most iconic figure in those franchises.... no, wait, maybe Lin Shaye for Insidious. I haven't really followed those franchises too closely.

Also, any franchise that has invisible villains will have difficulties with having the villain be iconic. So, like, in the Paranormal Activity movies, most people would probably say Katie Featherston is the icon. She deserves that, she did a great job in the PA movies I have seen.

Personally I wouldn't go so far as to say any character from the Paranormal Activity franchise is iconic.

Yeah... um.... OK, I can't argue too much with that. I would say that her face is the most recognizable, from the franchise, but to call her an icon means something beyond that. Maybe PA should be considered iconless.

I definitely wouldn't consider Herbert West a good guy. I mean, he's not necessarily a villain. He may not be trying to hurt people, but he doesn't really seem to care that he does. And while his goal is to put an end to death, he seems to be doing it much more for the glory than to actually help people. The guy has a major god complex.

I agree with what you are saying. I just meant to say that he is DEBATABLY a good guy, because he ends up fighting the re-animated corpses, and that other doctor's re-animated severed head. And, yeah, he really believes that his endgame is finding an end to death. But, of course, there wouldn't have been any problems with re-animated corpses, heads, cats, etc if he had just aborted his experiments at the first sign of trouble.